Tank cleaning machine employing a piston actuated hydraulic clutch



June 20, 1967 B. BRISTOW ETAL TANK CLEANING MACHINE EMPLOYING A PISTON ACTUATED HYDRAULIC CLUTCH Filed March 19, 1965 FIEr- 1- 5 Sheets-Sheet 1 INVENTORS ROBERT A. MCCLOUD BY B/IK'A/f BRISTUW wfw June 20, 1967 B. BRISTOW ETAL 3,326,468

TANK CLEANING MACHINE EMPLOYING A PISTON ACTUATED HYDRAULIC CLUTCH Filed March 19, 1965 3 Sheets-Sheet 5 INVENTOR5 ROBERT A. MC CLOUD BY SARA/EV BRISTOW ATTOENEYS United States Patent 3 326,468 TANK CLEANING MACHINE EMPLOYING A PISTON ACTUA'IED HYDRAULIC CLUTCH Barney Bristow, San Mateo, and Robert A. McCloud, Castro Valley, Calif., assignors, by direct and mesne assignments, of one-half to Cloud Company and onehalf to Holmes Leasing Corporation, San Francisco, Calif both corporations of California Filed Mar. 19, 1965, Ser. No. 441,247 8 Claims. (Cl. 239--227) This invention relates to tank cleaning machines and more particularly to the type of tank cleaning machine that is adapted to be suspended on a supply hose in the cargo tanks of railway cars and marine tankers. Tank cleaning machines of this general type are shown in the following United States patents: Butterworth, 1,806,740; Veneziano, 2,661,241; Pedrick, 2,916,268; Lione, 2,917,- 243; and Kennedy, 3,052,574.

Tank cleaning machines of this type are subject to very severe operating conditions and very rigorous requirements for maintenance free use. For instance, a tank cleaning machine of this type, when used on a marine tanker, may be used with concentrated caustic cleaning solutions at elevated temperatures, and the machine may be used continuously for long periods of time where for instance the cargo tanks of the tanker are cleaned at sea during the tankers empty trip to a port where it loads cargo. During a single trip of this type the tank cleaning machine is subjected to extremely corrosive conditions, and the user of the machine cannot tolerate machine failures at sea.

It is an object of this invention to provide a tank cleanin g machine which may withstand the corrosive conditions of use and rough handling to which machines of this type are often subjected without requiring substantial maintenance.

It is another object of the invention to provide such a machine which can withstand long periods of use at high hydraulic pressures and substantial wear on the machine parts without maintenance or adjustment of the machine.

It is another object to provide such a machine which is driven by the joint action of a turbine and the reactive thrust of the stream of cleaning fluid discharged by the machine.

These and other objects of the invention are accomplished with the machine structure illustrated in the attached drawings and described below wherein a continuous train of spur gears is contained in an enclosed gear box and connects a turbine to a rotatable nozzle housing through the medium of a ring gear and a pair of bevel gears. A novel seal and bearing arrangement is employed between the turbine and the gear train to prevent the passage of corrosive liquids to the gear train. A shear pin is employed to protect the gear train from shock damage, and a novel hydraulic clutch is employed to provide additional protection against shock damage and to permit manual rotation of the nozzle housing. Additionally, a novel arrangement is provided to facilitate the movement of the tank cleaning machine into remote parts of the tank.

With reference to the attached drawings:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of the tank cleaning machine of this invention;

FIG. 2 is a vertical sectional view of the machine of FIG. 1 on an enlarged scale and illustrated with a carrying cap attached thereto;

FIG. 3 is an exploded view of the train of driving gears of the tank cleaning machine, and

FIG. 4 is a fragmentary view of a portion of the apparatus illustrated in FIG. 2.

Referring now in detail to the drawings and particularly to FIG. 1, the tank cleaning machine illustrated therein includes a main stationary housing 10 having a water inlet 12 which is adapted to be connected to a hose or pipe by which the tank cleaning machine may be suspended in a tank to be cleaned. A stationary gear box 13 is attached to the lower end of the housing 10, and an intermediate rotary housing 14 is mounted on the housing 10 for rotation above a vertical axis. A nozzle housing 16 is mounted on the housing 10 for rotation about a horizontal axis, and the housing carries a pair of eccentrically directed nozzles 18. As explained hereinafter, the combined action of the reactive thrust of the water streams issuing from the nozzles 18 and the drive action of a turbine in the flow stream of the tank cleaning machine cause the nozzle housing 16 to rotate about the horizontal axis in the direction indicated by the arrows in FIG. 1, and this rotation is accompanied by rotation of the intermediate housing 14 about a vertical axis as indicated by the second set of arrows in FIG. 1.

With reference to FIG. 2, the main stationary housing It} includes an upper portion 20, and intermediate aperture portion 22 and a lower portion 24. The lower portion 24 has a generally tubular shape which provides a central flow divider in the fluid passageway which extends through the housing 10, and as explained hereinafter, this tubular portion of the stationary housing provides an upper bearing and seal support for the turbine. A stationary bevel gear 26 is mounted on the lower end of the stationary housing 14, and below the bevel gear 26 a skirt portion 28 is provided with both the skirt 28 and bevel gear 26 attached to the main stationary housing 10 by means of a plurality of bolts 30 and an index pin 32.

The intermediate rotary housing 14 is mounted on the cylindrical outer surface of the stationary housing 10 by means of a pair of bushings 34, and a recessed portion 36 of the intermediate housing provided with O-ring seals 38 on opposite sides thereof communicates with the apertured portion 22 of the stationary housing 10 to provide continuous fluid communication between the interior of the stationary housing 10 and the interior of the rotary housing 14.

The intermediate rotary housing 14 is also provided with a T-shaped neck 40 on which the rotary nozzle housing 16 is mounted.

The nozzle housing 16 is mounted on the rotary housing 14 by means of a pair of bushings 42 and a cover plate 44 which is held in place by a plurality of bolts 46. The T-shaped portion 40 of the intermediate housing has a plurality of apertures 48 which communicate with the interior of the nozzle housing 16 to provide fluid communication between the inlet 12 of the machine and the discharge nozzles 18. As indicated in the lower portion of FIG. 2, each of the nozzles 18 is provided with a set of conventional flow straightener vanes 50.

A bevel gear 52 is mounted on the inner end of nozzle housing 16 by means of a pair of snap rings 54 with the bevel gear 52 in mesh with the bevel gear 26 so that as the intermediate housing 14 rotates about the vertical axis, the nozzle housing 16 rotates about the horizontal axis. The bevel gears 26 and 52 have a large number of teeth, but the numbers of teeth on the two gears differ by one so that the spread pattern delivered by the nozzles 18 is non-repetitive for any extremely large number of revolutions of the nozzle housing 16.

With reference to FIGS. 2, 3 and 4, it will be noted that the bevel gear 52 is freely rotatable with respect to the nozzle housing 16 and is provided with a fluid clutch which permits the nozzle housing 16 to be rotated manually prior to the time hydraulic pressure is applied to the device but provides a susbtantially rigid connection between the nozzle housing 16 and the bevel the gear 52 when hydraulic pressure is applied to the interior of the machine. Thus, a generally conical depression 56 is provided in one face of the bevel gear 52, and a piston 58 with a conical end 60 thereon engages the depression 56 to lock the nozzle housing 16- to the bevel gear 52. The opposite end 62 of the piston 58 communicates with the fluid passageways in the machine so that fluid pressure in the tank cleaning machine forces the piston 58 into its locking position with the bevel gear 52. As iliustrated in FIG. 4, when hydraulic pressure in the tank cleaning machine is relieved, the nozzle housing 16 may be rotated manually while the conical surfaces 56 and 60 disengage themselves from each other, the piston 58 moving outwardly away from the bevel gear 52. An O-ring 64 is provided around the periphery of the piston 58, and the interior of the piston 58 is provided with a bore 66.

With reference to FIG. 2, a stator 68 is mounted in the fluid inlet passageway 12 by means of a snap ring 70 and a turbine 72 is positioned immediately below the stator 68 and mounted for rotation on a turbine drive shaft 74.

The gear box 13 is attached to the skirt 28 by means of a plurality of bolts 76, and the gear box contains a train of spur gears by which the rotary motion of the turbine 72 is transmitted to the intermediate rotary housing 14 through a series of gear reduction stages. Thus, as indicated in FIG. 3, a spur pinion gear 78 is mounted on the lower end of the turbine shaft 74 by means of a pin 80, and the gear train includes the following gears which are driven sequentially from the pinion 78: spur gears 82 and 84 on shaft 86; spur gears 88 and 90 on shaft 92; spur gears 93 and 94 on shaft 96; and spur gear 98 on shaft 100. These spur gears are connected to the shafts by pins as indicated in FIGS. 2 and 3, and suitable bushingsare provided for mounting the s'hafts in the gear box as illustrated in FIG. 2. The various spur gears rotate in the directions indicated by the arrows in FIG. 3.

As indicated in FIG. 2, a pinion gear 102 is mounted on the top of shaft 100 above the gear box, and this pinion is in mesh with a ring gear 104 which is supported in an annular recess on the underside of the intermediate rotary housing 14 by means of a disc 106 connected by bolts 108 to the rotary housing 14. The ring gear 104 may rotate freely in the housing 14 except for the fact that a shear pin 110 interconnects the ring gear and the rotary housing 14. This shear pin provides protection against shock damage to the spur gears 78-102, since the shear pin will fail and free the ring gear 104 for rotation if the shear pin is subjected to excess shearing forces.

As indicated in FIG. 2, bearing and sealing means 112 is provided at the upper end of the shaft 74 where the shaft enters the central chamber between the stationary housing and the gear box 13, and bearing and sealing means 116 is provided on the shaft 74 where the shaft passes from the central chamber 114 into the gear box 13.

The upper bearing and sealing means 112 includes a steel disc 118 on the lower side of the turbine 72, a Teflon disc 120 immediately :below the disc 118, a steel disc 122 immediately below the Teflon disc 120, and a Teflon sleeve 124 fitted into the top of the opening in the bottom portion 24 of the stationary housing 10 with the Teflon sleeve 124 having a downwardly facing shoulder engaging the housing portion 24 and an upwardly facing shoulder engaging the steel disc 122. The disc 122 is free to rotate with respect to the disc 120 and the sleeve 124 and the shaft 74 so that the thrust forces set up by the water pressure on the turbine 72 are distributed over both of the opposite faces of the disc 122 while the speed of relative rotation between the disc 122 and each of the discs 120 and 124 is approximately one-half of the speed of relative rotation between the turbine 72 and the stationary housing 10.

A similar arrangement is provided for the lower hearing and sealing means 116. In this arrangement, a Teflon sleeve 126, similar to the sleeve 124, is mounted in a raised boss 128 on the top of the gear box 13, and a similar Teflon sleeve 130 is attached to the shaft 74 by a pin 132 with a steel washer 134 provided between the sleeves 126 and 130 rotatable with respect to both of the sleeves 128 and 130 and with respect to the shaft 74. A conventional sealing means 136 is also provided below the sleeve 126 around the shaft 74.

It will be noted that a plurality of fluid discharge ports 138 are provided at the bottom of the interior chamber 114. These discharge ports 138 are rectangular in shape and serve as screw driver slots to facilitate removal of the gear box 13 from the stationary housing. The discharge ports 138 also perform an important function in conjunction with the lower bearing and sealing means 116. Thus, the lower bearing and sealing means 116 is positioned substantially above the bottom of the chamber 114 and has a diameter substantially exceeding the diameter of the shaft 74. Since the shaft 74 and the upper members of the sealing means 116 rotate at substantial speeds, the sealing means 116 tends to throw [fluids off of the shaft 74 by centrifugal force, and these fluids seep out of the bottom discharge ports 138 without coming in contact with the access openings to the gear box 13 around the shaft 74. In this manner, the lower sealing and bearing means 116 and the discharge port 1338 help prevent the ingress of corrosive cleaning fluids to the gear box 13.

As illustrated in FIGS; 1 and 2, a circular plate 140 is attached to the bottom of the gear box 13 by means of bolts 142, and a radial arm 144 is attached to the center of the plate 140 by means of a pivot pin 146 at the vertical axis of the machine so that the radial arm may be swung around the vertical axis of the machine. The radial arm 144 has a length exceeding the radius of the remainder of the machine, and the arm 144 is positioned below the maximum arc of travel of the nozzles 18 so that the arm 144 may be moved to any position radially of the machine without interfering with the operation thereof. A line 148 may be tied to the end of the arm 144 and passed through a suitable fitting in a remote corner of a tank to be cleaned and hence upwardly through the hatch from which the tank cleaning machine is lowered so that the line 148 may be pulled to move the tank cleaning machine from a central area in the tank into the remote areas.

While one specific embodiment of the invention has been illustrated and described in detail herein, it is obvious that many modifications may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention.

What is claimed is:

1. A tank cleaning machine comprising:

(A) a first housing having a first interior passageway adapted to be connected to a supply of fluid,

(B) a second housing mounted on said first housing for rotation about a first axis and having a second interior passageway communicating with said first interior passageway,

(C) 'a third housing mounted on said second housing for rotation about a second axis generally perpendicular to said first axis and having a discharge nozzle inclined at a substantial angle to said second axis and communicating with said second interior passageway,

(D) drive means for rotating said third housing about said second axis as said second housing rotates about said first axis, and

(E) drive means interconnecting said first and second housings for rotating said second housing about said first axis with said drive means comprising:

(1) a turbine mounted in said first interior passageway for rotation responsive to fluid flow through said first passageway,

(2) a ring gear having teeth on its interior circumference and being connected to said second housing coaxial of said first axis, and

(3) a pontinuous train of spur gears connected between said turbine and said ring gear for rotating said ring gear at a substantially slower speed than the rotational speed of said turbine.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 in which an annular recess is provided in said second housing; said ring gear is slidably mounted in said recess, and a shear pin extends through said ring gear and a portion of said second housing with said shear pin forming the sole rigid connection between said ring gear and said second housing whereby said ring gear may rotate in said annular recess upon rupture of said shear pin.

3. The apparatus of claim 1 in which said drive means for rotating said third housing comprises a first bevel gear mounted on said first housing coaxial with said first axis and a second bevel gear mounted on said third housing in mesh with said first bevel gear and coaxial with said second axis, and a hydraulic clutch is interposed in said drive means with said clutch comprising a generally conical depression in one face of one of said bevel gears, and a piston mounted in one of said housings with said piston having a generally conical end engaged in said conical depression and an opposite end communicating with the interior passageway in said one housing, said piston being movable away from said conical depression to permit free rotation of said third housing around said second axis.

4. The apparatus of claim 1 characterized further by the inclusion of an arm pivotally mounted on said first housing at a pivot point adjacent to said first axis with sad arm extending generally perpendicular to said first axis and spaced away from said second axis by a distance greater than the maximum distance of any part of said third housing from said second axis with said arm having a length at least as great as the distance of said discharge nozzle from said first axis.

5. The apparatus of claim 1 characterized further by the inclusion of a chamber between said interior passageway in said first housing and said train of spur gears with said chamber having a bottom, a shaft connected at its opposite ends to said turbine and said train of spur gears and extending through said chamber, fluid discharge means at the bottom of said chamber leading away from said gear train, first bearing and seal means adjacent to said turbine and surrounding said shaft where it extends into said chamber, and second bearing and seal means adjacent to said gear train and surrounding said shaft where it extends into said chamber with said second bearing and seal means positioned above the bottom of said chamber and having exterior surfaces rotatable with said shaft and having a diameter larger than the diameter of said shaft.

6. In a tank cleaning machine having a housing having an interior passageway with an inlet end adapted to be connected to a liquid supply conduit, a rotatable nozzle mounted on said housing and communicating with said interior passageway, a turbine mounted in said interior passageway for rotation responsive to fluid flow through said passageway, and a gear box mounted on said housing and containing a gear train with said gear train connected between said turbine and said nozzle for rotating said nozzle responsive to rotation of said turbine, the improved means for supporting said turbine and preventing liquid flow from said passageway to said gear box which comprises:

(A) a wall portion of said housing between said inlet and said gear box and defining a portion of the walls of said passageway,

(B) a top wall portion of said gear box defining with said wall portion of said housing a chamber separated from said passageway with said chamber having a bottom,

(C) fluid discharge means at the bottom of said chamber communicating with the exterior of said gear box,

(D) a turbine drive shaft connected at its opposite ends to said turbine and said gear train and extending through said wall portions of said housing and gear box,

(E) first bearing and seal means surrounding said shaft where said shaft extends through said wall portion of said housing.

(F) second bearing and seal means spaced from said first bearing and seal means in said chamber and above the bottom of said chamber and surrounding said shaft where said shaft extends through said wall portion of said gear box with said second bearing and seal means having exterior surfaces rotatable with said shaft and having a diameter greater than the diameter of said shaft,

(G) and a body portion surrounding said shaft and extending downwardly from said second bearing and seal means to the bottom of said chamber.

7. In a tank cleaning machine having a housing having an interior passageway with an inlet end adapted to be connected to a liquid supply conduit, a rotatable nozzle mounted on said housing and communicating with said interior passageway, a turbine mounted in said interior passageway for rotation responsive to fluid flow through said passageway, and a gear box mounted on said housing and containing a gear train with said gear train connected between said turbine and said nozzle for rotating said nozzle responsive to rotation of said turbine, the improved means for supporting said turbine and preventing liquid flow from said passageway to said gear box which comprises:

(A) an elongated generally tubular wall portion of said housing extending longitudinally of said passageway from said turbine away from said inlet end defining at least in part end walls of said passageway on the end of said passageway opposite to said inlet end,

(B) a top wall portion of said gear box defining with said elongated wall portion of said housing a chamber separated from said passageway,

(C) fluid discharge means at the bottom of said chamber communicating with the exterior of said gear box,

(D) a turbine drive shaft connected at its opposite ends to said turbine and said gear train and extending through said wall portions of said housing and gear box,

(E) first bearing and seal means surrounding said shaft where said shaft extends through said wall portion of said housing with said bearing means comprising:

( 1) a Teflon sleeve surrounding said shaft and mounted in said generally tubular wall portion and having a first shoulder facing away from the inlet end of said passageway and engaging said wall portion and a second shoulder facing toward said inlet end of said passageway,

(2) a Teflon bearing member surrounding said shaft and mounted on the side of said turbine facing away from said inlet, and

(3) a metal washer surrounding said shaft between and in engagement with said Teflon bearing member and said second shoulder, and

(F) second bearing and seal means spaced from said first bearing and seal means in said chamber and surrounding said shaft where said shaft extends through said wall portion of said gear box with said bearing means comprising:

( 1) a second Teflon sleeve surroundning said shaft and mounted in said wall portion of said gear box above the bottom of said chamber and having a first shoulder engaging said wall portion and a secondshoulder facing away from said first shoulder,

(2) a second Teflon bearing attached to said shaft between said second Tefion sleeve and said first bearing and seal means, and

(3) a second metal washer surrounding said shaft between and in engagement with said second Teflon bearing and said second shoulder of said second Teflon sleeve.

8. In a tank cleaning machine having a main housing having an interior passageway adapted to be connected to a fluid supply conduit, a nozzle housing rotatably mounted on said main housing in communication with said passageway, and drive means for controlling the speed of rotation of said nozzle housing on said main housing with said drive means including an annular gear mounted on said main housing and a second annular gear mounted on said nozzle housing, the improved hydraulic clutch for said drive means which comprises: a generally conical recess in one face of one of said gears spaced away from the center of said gear, and a piston movably mounted in the one housing on which said one gear is mounted with said piston having a generally conical surface on cal depression to permit said one gear to rotate freely with respect to said one housing.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,078,566 4/1937 Fletcher 239 227 2,120,784 6/1938 Ho-Wald 239-227 2,661,241 12/1953 Veneziano 239-227 2,714,080 7/1955 Kennedy et al. 239227 X 2,917,243 12/1959 LiOne 239-227 3,149,784 9/1964 Skidgel 239240 X 3,255,969 6/1966 Saad 239227 M. HENSON WOOD, JR., Primary Examiner.

VAN C. WILKS, Assistant Examiner. 

8. IN A TANK CLEANING MACHINE HAVING A MAIN HOUSING HAVING AN INTERIOR PASSAGEWAY ADAPTED TO BE CONNECTED TO A FLUID SUPPLY CONDUIT, A NOZZLE HOUSING ROTATABLY MOUNTED ON SAID MAIN HOUSING IN COMMUNICATION WITH SAID PASSAGEWAY, AND DRIVE MEANS FOR CONTROLLING THE SPEED OF ROTATION OF SAID NOZZLE HOUSING ON SAID MAIN HOUSING WITH SAID DRIVE MEANS INCLUDING AN ANNULAR GEAR MOUNTED ON SAID MAIN HOUSING AND A SECOND ANNULAR GEAR MOUNTED ON SAID NOZZLE HOUSING, THE IMPROVED HYDRAULIC CLUTCH FOR SAID DRIVE MEANS WHICH COMPRISES: A GENERALLY CONICAL RECESS IN ONE FACE OF ONE OF SAID GEARS SPACED AWAY FROM THE CENTER OF SAID GEAR, AND A PISTON MOVABLY MOUNTED IN THE ONE HOUSING ON WHICH SAID ONE GEAR IS MOUNTED WITH SAID PISTON HAVING A GENERALLY CONICAL SURFACE ON ONE END THEREOF ENGAGED IN SAID CONICAL DEPRESSION AND 